This online flea market gathers every Tuesday

Flea markets are a common feature in many countries. Every month or every week, sellers will set up shop at a location and hawk their wares to passerbys or regular patrons.

These events are attractive places for women who want to dip their toes in the retail fashion business, since rentals are affordable. Anything from shoes, accessories, and clothes can be sold.

Now, a bunch of Thai entrepreneurs are taking this idea further — by bringing flea markets online. A-week is an online marketplace started in November 2011 that opens every Tuesday. It draws about 500 shoppers to 400 shops and over 2,200 products every week.

So why Tuesday? Thanachot Wisuttismarn, one of the four co-founders, explains that weekends are out because people are usually not at home. And since A-week Tuesday (as the weekly event is called) is targeted at females, Tuesdays are the best choice as it’s associated with the color pink in Thailand. The event stocks fashion and beauty items for women.

The idea of holding an online sale at a fixed time certainly seems counter-intuitive. After all, the biggest advantage of an e-store is that it is open 24/7, allowing shoppers to come in and buy your product even while you’re asleep.

But equating a-week to eBay or Amazon would be a mistake. A-week positions itself as a lively place for buyers to interact with sellers — they can haggle over prices, discuss a product with another shopper, and chat with merchants.

Holding a weekly, time-limited event is certainly an interesting way to go about doing e-commerce. The buzz generated by the chatter from buyers on Facebook and Twitter gives sellers greater exposure. Shoppers, meanwhile, benefit from the immediate attention and variety given by hundreds of merchants at this weekly “hang-out”.

Setting up a store is free, and the team plans to introduce premium features in the future. A live chat function is also being developed.

For now, A-week storefronts mainly list out telephone numbers and bank transfer details. That’s beacuse Thai people prefer calling than emailing or chatting online with shops since calling costs are cheap, according to Thanachot. PayPal and Visa are not commonly used as payment modes either.

Rather, Paysbuy, a PayPal-like service, is more popular, and so are counter services in places like 7-11 convenience stores. A-week hopes to integrate these into its marketplace eventually. Also in the pipeline are more time-limited events that will occupy other days of the week.

I wonder if color will play a role in defining them…

This video tells us how a-week benefits sellers. With such cute graphics, who needs to understand Thai?